Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel Turns Down Penn State With All-Time Quote
That was a tad unnecessary, Josh.
While schools like LSU and Florida have grabbed more headlines with their respective coaching searches, Penn State has quietly been conducting a coaching search of its own.
After jettisoning James Franklin from the ranks over a month and a half ago, the Nittany Lions have been in the hunt for a new head coach, but all leads seem to have led to a dead end.
Recently, rumors have started to bubble up that Tennessee Volunteers head coach, Josh Heupel, would be the next big man in Happy Valley, so much so that the popular gambling site, Kalshi, briefly had the Vols skipper as the betting favorite to land the Penn State job.
Heupel saw it a different way, coming out and flatly denying the rumors while throwing a shot at the Nittany Lions in the process.
Wow! That was entirely unnecessary, Josh!
There are ways to turn down a job without being a full-blown douchebag and sniping a proud institution like Penn State, and Heupel did the exact opposite.
A simple "no, thank you," would have been just as effective, don't you think?
While we are on the subject, not only was Heupel being a little mean-spirited, he was also being kind of a liar.
I've made my feelings about James Franklin fairly well-known, and I agree with the decision to let him go, but he has had an objectively better career at Penn State than Heupel has at Tennessee.
Even last year, the best season in Heupel's tenure on Rocky Top, Franklin had an objectively better year, with a deeper run in the College Football Playoff.
I would say the expectations to win consistently are, at the very least, equally lofty at Penn State as they are at Tennessee.
Heupel was summarily roasted in the comments section, by Big Ten fans and neutral observers.
Yowzers! They're coming for his throat.
It's fair game when you make a comment like that; he had to expect a little retaliation.
Regardless, Heupel staying in Knoxville is probably the best case scenario for all parties involved.
Tennessee gets to keep their coach who has stabilized their once-turbulent program and Penn State gets to continue their search for the next big thing in college football.